Of dynamic cans, I have owned: Sennheiser HD650, Audio Technica L3000, Headphile K3000, Grado RS-1, Grado HP-2, AKG K701 & K1000, Sony SA5000. I recently needed to repurchase a dynamic headphone, with a $1500 budget on the headphone itself, and after thinking it through I decided to buy the HD650. That should be enough to show what I think of the HD650, .

The K1000 was a close call though, but nobody had Aleph 3s on Audiogon to sell (Canman sold his a day before I was 100% sure I wanted an Aleph). If one pops up though, I'll buy the amp first, then the headphones - I probably won't sell the HD650, though.

The HD650s were the first headphones I loved, so I guess it has some sentimental value

I prefer to speak of result in sound (all the components: source->cable->amp->cans)... and yes, the best I had is with HD 650 as headphones. There are two ways for the best result in sound with HD 650:

It is not my favourite headphone ever (these "accolade" goes to DT880, HE60 and some Grados), but I have to admit that the HD650 is an astonishing good sounding headphone and a true reference for balanced and naturally detailed sound.
I sold and re-bought them many times... so I finally realized that I need one pair of the top Senns always in my setup.

But it is difficult to bring it to their true potential, it needs (for my experience) very sinergic source and amps, tipically expensive ones (I wish it was not so... ).

It is not my favourite headphone ever (these "accolade" goes to DT880, HE60 and some Grados), but I have to admit that the HD650 is an astonishing good sounding headphone and a true reference for balanced and naturally detailed sound.
I sold and re-bought them many times... so I finally realized that I need one pair of the top Senns always in my setup.

But it is difficult to bring it to their true potential, it needs (for my experience) very sinergic source and amps, tipically expensive ones (I wish it was not so... ).

bye
Andrew

You're elected my ULTIMATE budget systems hero.

In fact, I've realized the opposite - that the HD650 doesn't need "expensive" stuff to shine, nor certainly "very synergic". It merely needs good, natural sounding stuff, and by good I mean good (that doesn't imply expensive, nor cheap). Many audiophiles don't even realize that though their systems surely are expensive, they're not truly good..

In fact, I've realized the opposite - that the HD650 doesn't need "expensive" stuff to shine, nor certainly "very synergic". It merely needs good, natural sounding stuff, and by good I mean good (that doesn't imply expensive, nor cheap). Many audiophiles don't even realize that though their systems surely are expensive, they're not truly good..